Dr. Bertram W. Wells, a leading Southeastern ecologist and professor of botany at North Carolina State University, believed that the most beautiful natural wild flower garden in the eastern United States was probably Big Savannah, a 1,500-acre grassy wetland in Pender County, N.C.

Wells, who first saw Big Savannah in 1920, was disheartened 50 years later when that unique plant community was drained to grow row crops. He had spent decades studying and working to preserve the wetland savannah, which he hoped would become a state park and a tourist attraction.

Now, a conservation organization is leading an effort to preserve a 117-acre site located a few miles northwest of Big Savannah. Found recently by botanist Richard LeBlond with the state’s Natural Heritage Program, the site has the same rare soil type and plant community as Big Savannah, and includes more than 170 native plant species-- about a dozen of which are rare or of concern to state ecologists. LeBlond refers to the site as “the Ghost of Big Savannah.”

“Conservationists rarely get a second chance to save significant habitats at the coast, but this wonderful discovery in Pender County provides just such an opportunity,” said Camilla M. Herlevich, director of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, which is working to purchase the area. “We are so grateful to Richard LeBlond and the professors and instructors in the Botany Department at NC State who brought this project to our attention.”

The North Carolina Coastal Land Trust will name it the B.W. Wells Savannah in recognition of the botanist who studied and fought to protect the historic Big Savannah.


Wells, who died in 1978 at age 94, was a member of the first generation of North American plant ecologists, having pioneered research on vegetation ecology in the southeastern United States. He was a member of the NC State faculty from 1919 to 1954, and headed the botany department for 30 years.

“It’s quite appropriate that this tract of land be preserved in his name,” said Dr. Art Cooper, professor emeritus of forestry at NC State and a colleague of Wells’ who visited Big Savannah with him in the 1950s. “Wells was the first student of North Carolina vegetation, and this savannah vegetation type was one of the first that he studied.”

Wells found that the savannah’s sticky, black soil and frequent fires created conditions that allowed flowers to bloom every month but January. The highlight of the year, described in his 1932 book The Natural Gardens of North Carolina, was the blossoming of thousands of white fringed orchids in July. “Each plant bears a mass of the purest white spurred flowers, and they all apparently come on the scene at about the same time,” Wells wrote. “When at its height this display of wild flowers is positively one of the finest in America. The writer personally knows of nothing to match it.”

The savannah remnant northwest of Burgaw remains similar to its original condition in part because it was never plowed and is located under a Carolina Power & Light power line. CP&L’s mowing of the area helped maintain much of its ecological integrity by preventing shrubs and trees from shading the original species.

The N.C. Coastal Land Trust and the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) are seeking to raise at least $120,000 for the project. The Progress Energy Foundation has donated $15,000, and the McKim & Creed P.A. engineering and architectural firm has donated a survey and resulting map of the site.

Management will include periodic controlled burns, which clear brush and rejuvenate the herbaceous plants of the savannah system. Biologists also expect that fire will help long-dormant seeds, such as those of the Venus’ fly-trap, to germinate.

Participating with the N.C. Coastal Land Trust in the campaign to protect the B.W. Wells Savannah are the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC), CP&L, and the N.C. Wild Flower Preservation Society. The mission of the Coastal Land Trust is to enrich the coastal communities of North Carolina through the acquisition of open spaces and natural areas, conservation education and the promotion of good land stewardship. CTNC aims to conserve land resources throughout North Carolina through direct action and by helping communities, private land trusts and landowners protect lands most important to them for their natural, scenic, historic and recreational values.


-- potter --